Bad Request

First a friend, then a foe

Onondagas say Ephraim Webster betrayed them in treaties with state

Friday, August 11, 2000

Mike McAndrewStaff writer

For three decades, the Onondagas trusted and relied on Ephraim Webster more than any other white man. The first white person to permanently settle in what became Onondaga County, Webster spoke the Onondaga language, married an Onondaga woman, fathered an Onondaga leader, dressed like an Indian, and made a living trading goods with them.

He was a translator at three treaties in which the Onondagas sold the state about 70,000 acres. The Onondagas liked Webster so much that they pestered New York's governor to give him a square mile of land from territory they sold to the state. They wanted Webster to live near them.

Even after Webster left his Indian wife and married a white teen-ager, he remained on good terms with the Onondagas.

But in 1817, the trust was broken.

Webster was the state's agent and translator for the Onondagas that year when they sold land to New York.

The treaty the Onondagas signed also required they give Webster a present - 300 acres of their shrinking territory.

Disagreements over the 300 acres prompted the Onondagas to accuse their friend of betraying them. "We are determined not to have any further dealings with him," Onondaga chiefs wrote New York Gov. DeWitt Clinton. "How can we trust a man as agent when we believe he has very often deceived us?" When Webster died, he left the 300 acres and all of his possessions to his second wife and his white children, and nothing to his Onondaga son.

"He married an Onondaga woman," said Oren Lyons, a faithkeeper in the Onondaga Nation. "But he had an eye to the land."

The Onondagas are preparing to sue New York over ownership of 70,000 acres - which includes nearly all of the city of Syracuse - that the state acquired in treaties.

The Onondagas claim New York violated a 1790 federal law by buying land from Indian nations without obtaining the federal government's approval.

The 300 acres Webster obtained from the Onondagas is less than half of 1 percent of the 70,000 acre claim area.

But to the Onondagas, that missing chunk is a constant reminder of the injustices allegedly committed by New York and its pioneers.

"It's a symbol that even your closest white friend - or who you thought was your closest white friend - that even they betray you," said Robert Venables, an associate professor in Cornell University's American Indian Program.

Living with Onondagas

Raised in New Hampshire, Webster served as a teen-ager in George Washington's Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.

At 24, he came to Onondaga Hollow in 1786 to trade with the Onondagas. He built a trading house on the east bank of Onondaga Creek, near where it empties into Onondaga Lake.

A chief named Kahiktoton married Webster to an Onondaga woman known as "One-Eyed Nancy" on the banks of the Onondaga Creek, according to an 1837 account given by Catherine Farmer, an Onondaga.

Farmer said smallpox robbed Nancy of sight in one eye.

Pioneer Calvin Jackson wrote of meeting up with Webster, his one-eyed Native American wife and their son near Onondaga Lake.

He "was dressed in Indian costume and painted and a jewel in his nose and ears," Jackson said.

In 1793, Webster worked as a translator at treaty talks between the Onondagas and New York.

The day the treaty was signed, eight Onondagas, including the chief Kahiktoton, marked Xs on a deed giving land on Onondaga Creek's west bank to New York with instructions that the state give the land to Webster. The deed indicates the land was a gift in return for Webster's services as an interpreter.

Webster "is considered a person of good character among (the Onondagas) and has always conducted himself in a manner friendly to the state," wrote the state's treaty negotiators, Simeon DeWitt and John Cantine.

The Onondagas sent Clinton a letter in 1794 reminding him they expected the state to deed to Webster the land.

"It will be very bad to have the white people that we are acquainted with to go away and strangers come that we cannot speak with ..." the Onondagas' letter said.

Shortly after that, the state deeded to Webster as "a free and voluntary gift" a total of one square mile that it had acquired from the Onondagas.

"In a communal society like the Onondagas, every gift carries an obligation," said Venables, who has done research for the Onondagas. "Giving a gift (of land) was cementing this guy into their community. They think he's going to be associated with their community. I don't think they think he will be alienating the land from their community."

But in 1796, just months after Webster received legal title to the square mile, he married a white teen-ager, Hannah Danks.

Webster and his second wife built a house in the square mile on what is now the banks of Webster's Pond in Syracuse's Valley section. They had five children together.

Historians have written conflicting accounts of what became of Webster's Onondaga wife, ranging from him tricking her into getting drunk so he could divorce her to her simply dying.

Webster sold off most of the square mile in small chunks for $9,000.

Onondaga Nation Chief Irving Powless believes his ancestors would have expected the land to be returned to the nation's after Webster's death.

"In our concept, we give you a parcel of land to use, but with the understanding that we are going to use it also. Because the land was for everyone," Powless said. "The idea isn't that we give it to you and you can put up a fence around it, and then sell it."

Staying friendly

In 1798, Webster was elected the first supervisor of the town of Onondaga.

Even after Webster rejoined white society, he apparently enjoyed a good relationship with the Onondagas.

Gov. Daniel Tompkins told the Assembly in 1811 that the state needed to appoint an agent to live with the Onondagas because of the "numerous and unprovoked trespasses and injuries which evil-minded white persons commit upon the property and persons of those inoffensive Indians."

The legislature appointed Webster to the job.

When the War of 1812 began, Webster wrote to President James Madison on behalf of the Onondaga chiefs. The chiefs wanted to know if Madison wanted Onondaga warriors to fight for America.

Webster and several hundred Onondagas, including his son, Harry, fought in two battles for the United States against British troops and their Indian allies, which included Onondagas who were living in Canada.

In 1817, Webster interpreted at a treaty between the Onondagas and New York that was negotiated in Albany. The Onondagas sold the state 4,000 acres on the east side of their reservation for $1,000 and annual payments of $430 and 50 bushels of salt. The treaty also gave Webster the 300 acres.

Webster had been leasing the 300 acres from the Onondagas for 10 years prior to the treaty.

Sour note

Soon after, Webster's relationship with the Onondagas soured.

In March 1819, 23 Onondaga chiefs and warriors signed a letter to Gov. DeWitt Clinton asking the state to remove Webster as their agent.

We "believe that we have been deceived by him, and that he does not attend to our concerns as he ought to do," the Onondagas said. "Although our dispute with the said Webster respecting the three hundred acres of land conveyed by us to him and our saw mill is settled, still the misunderstanding between us is such that we think he cannot be useful to us as our agent and that we are determined not to have any further dealings with him."

The Onondagas and Webster settled their dispute with Webster surrendering ownership of a saw mill on the Onondagas' land. In return, the Onondagas agreed not to pursue any claims they had against him. Gov. Clinton told the assembly the Onondagas wanted to replace Webster as their agent, but the legislature apparently did not.

In 1822, Webster interpreted at the last treaty with New York in which the Onondagas sold 800 acres off the southern end of their reservation for a one-time payment of $1,700.

That left the Onondagas with 7,300 acres - the size of their territory today.

Inheritance sought

At 62, Webster died in 1824 at the Seneca Indian reservation at Tonawanda.

His will left all of his possessions to his second wife, Hannah and to their white children. Some of the children lived on the 300 acres until at least the late 1800s.

Nothing was left to Harry Webster, the Onondaga son.

After Webster's white wife died, Harry Webster went to court in April 1837 for a share of the land inherited by his white step-siblings, according to a 1962 Onondaga Historical Association bulletin. The bulletin said Harry Webster lost.

Harry Webster became the tadadaho - the spiritual leader of the Iroquois Confederacy - before he died in 1864.

Harry's connection to Ephraim Webster continued to be argued for decades after both had been buried. In a letter to the Syracuse Herald in 1899, Orris D. Webster, a white descendant of Ephraim Webster, insisted Ephraim did not father any Onondaga children. He said Harry's was a bogus lawsuit financed by his supporters.

"They started a suit in this county, and kept it in the courts for three years and searched the county for anyone to swear on their side," Orris Webster wrote. "They were beaten, lost their money and their case."

Today, the Onondaga Nation is hoping for better results than Harry Webster achieved.

Powless pledged the Onondagas will not evict homeowners as part of a land claim. He said the Onondagas will ask New York to give them an undetermined amount of land.

Onondaga chiefs have not identified what land the nation wants.

Given the history between Onondagas and New Yorkers, it would be fitting if the nation could recover some of the land Ephraim Webster acquired, said Dorothy Webster, an Onondaga clan mother who says she is Ephraim's great-great-great granddaughter.

"My mother and father always told me the land was taken illegally," Dorothy Webster said. "We never gave away anything."

Ephraim Webster
1762-1824
He was the first white to permanently settle in Onondaga County.
He served as translator at three treaties with Onondagas; Onondagas gave him gifts of land.
The United States paid him $40 in 1793 to dress as an indian and spy on British effoprts to persuade warriors in Ohio to fight U.S. troops.
Webster's Pond in Syracuse's Valley section is named after him. His house burned in 1891.